(Story) Operation Rheinubung - U-64 saves the Bismarck (revised - multiple pics)

[lonehawknz]

OK guys. Here's the better version (with the full set of screenshots!):


U-64, a Type IXB ocean boat with 7th Flotilla, 4 weeks out of Lorient on her 16th war patrol in May 1941, is returning from a long cruise along the Cape Verdes - Western Approaches convoy route taken by the Freetown bound SL convoys.

Kapitanleutnant Kris Von Leahy's crew had already sunk several large tankers and some smaller cargo vessels in and around the Rockall bank but the trip to the African coast was long, dull and very boring. Returning north, U-64, freshly painted with a smart black Viking longship, the pride and joy of bosun's mate Jens Hagen, makes a swift detour to sink a lone T2 tanker spotted steaming northeast towards Cornwall by Luftwaffe long range Condors on the 26th May.



That night, short on ammunition, torpedoes and fuel, with the boat heaving in the teeth of a sou'wester gale, nobody is surprised when the captain makes the welcome decision to head back for Lorient, the safety of the Keroman bunkers and the comforts of the old town's brothels and nightclubs. Cheering crewmen drown out the storm outside, bottles of beer stashed in the for'ard head are cracked open and for the first time in weeks, there's a real celebration onboard. Nobody much cares if there are Tommies about, in this storm they could be 5 metres away and no-one would be the wiser!

2nd Officer Ernst Rosemann approached the captain, sitting mopping his brow with his hat; "Iron Crosses all round for the Baltic Star and the Louisiana Express eh Herr Kaleun? We really hit them this time!"

"Yes, yes Rosey, just get me a damn drink man, for god's sake, before I die of thirst!"

"Old man Donitz wouldn't like it if he knew we had this on board sir!"

"Well Donitz isn't here is he?!" smiled Von Leahy. "Let's toast our gallant foe, and hope he sends us more fat oilers to sink!"

The cheering echoed round the boat. Just one beer per man, but enough to put aside the tension and boredom that had afflicted them all in equal measure.

Suddenly Fritz Loster, the radioman, races to the con with clear broadcast urgent traffic from BdU. Something serious must be afoot for U-Boat Command to be sending signals in the clear.



U-64 had received news of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen's destruction of HMS Hood 2 days previous, and the spectacular victory was greeted with joy and astonishment. The Royal Navy were not invincible, and Germany could win at sea! It was unbelievable!

Now reality struck home, Bismarck was in dire trouble. It was obvious from the signal that the wolves were closing in for the kill. At this point Von Leahy and his crew had no idea that in an even worse stroke of fate, the one hit scored on the Kriegsmarine's mighty battleship in an air raid earlier that day, had disabled her steering gear and damaged one propeller so that she made barely 7kts and was going round in circles!

4 hours from the expected point of intercept for the Royal Navy capital units stalking the crippled Bismarck, Von Leahy called for flank speed from the tired engines. A ripple of excitement and trepidation swept through the boat. A few minutes ago, they were going home. Now they were going to hell...


(pt2 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Racing south at flank speed, U-64 reaches the area in which the Bismarck is reported to be steaming at around 0800hrs on the 27th May.

Setting a course northwest to intercept the battleship (supposedly heading for Brest) and submerging to listen for the telltale high pitched whine of high speed warships, U-64 is astonished to find herself surrounded by utter silence in the inky black depths of the Atlantic.

"Nothing Herr Kaleun. Even the fish aren't swimming today, the weather's so foul..." reported Sonarman Klaus.

"Full sweep man! There must be something out there...?!" said Von Leahy, hoping against hope that they were not too late and Bismarck had not already succumbed to her pursuers further out to sea.

Raising the scope, he could see that finally the weather was clearing slightly. The rain had eased and the horizon was lifting to around 1000m. All around hung the grey pall of a sea mist, a good day for a funeral. He hoped it wouldn't be for Germany.

Suddenly a hiss from Klaus brought the Kaleun racing over to the hydrophones.

"Propellers, Bearing 340, Herr Kaleun. Closing fast! They're warships!"

So they were not too late after all.

A scant few seconds later, more screws could be heard closing from the northeast. And then, a strange high pitched screw noise mixed with clanking and clattering from dead ahead to the west. They realised a ship was damaged, and coming from a totally different direction, it had to be Bismarck!



"Steer 300 helm! Chief, keep her steady at 12m! All ahead full..!"

Von Leahy aimed to place himself between the westernmost group of British ships and the obviously wounded German battleship.

Meanwhile, Admiral Tovey and the crew of the two mighty Royal Navy battleships, King George V and Rodney, steamed at 23kts straight at Bismarck, who was being shadowed and harried by escorting destroyers from the 2nd Cruiser Sqn. Determined to avenge the loss of Hood, there would be no mercy for Bismarck.



Suddenly, through the blurring scope, with the remnants of the gale washing around the lens and making clear sighting impossible, Von Leahy glimpsed the looming shape of a battleship ploughing through the heaving seas dead astern. The profile was unmistakable, it was Bismarck, limping hopelessly and turning toward the U-boat.

Swinging the lens around, the Kaleun got the fright of his life when two British battleships, unmistakably a Nelson class and another, bigger ship came crashing out of the gloom straight off the bows of U-64 parallel to Bismarck's course.



They couldn't see each other! Neither ship made any attempt to fire. But U-64 was bang in the middle and could see all of them!

The u-boat was perfectly placed for a shot, by total accident Von Leahy had a chance to even the odds for their big brother...

(pt3 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Bismarck steamed lazily in a circle towards the British battleships



and Von Leahy knew he had to act immediately...

Lining up the Nelson in the scope, he passed the course and speed to Rosemann, the weapons officer, who punched the detail into the TDC.



With the solution set, there was no time for fine-tuning...

"Nummer zwei...LOS!!! Nummer drei...LOS!!!"

U-64 resounded to the whoosh of the torpedoes leaping from their tubes and Von Leahy prayed that Rosemann's solution was accurate.

Lining up on the 2nd ship, now clearly seen to be a King George class battleship, U-64 took a further 2 snapshots at her, although Von Leahy didn't expect to hit anything vital.



As the clock timed down, the air on board the u-boat was so thick you could cut it, and for once it had nothing to do with Leading Seaman Halder's feet..!

"Torpedo HIT!!!!" Von Leahy nearly screamed from the con. A plume of water shot up from the side of HMS Rodney, and then, almost in slow motion, she exploded in a sheet of flame.

"We must have hit the ammo bunkers Herr Kaleun!!!"



Rodney turned over lazily, afire from stem to stern and sank inside a minute, the few survivors clinging to planks of wood blown from the shattered ships boats.



Turning the scope towards the King George, Von Leahy was amazed to see her dead in the water. The explosion of Rodney had masked the fact that another hit had been scored, either on the remaining ship's screws or her engine room.



Consulting the BdU identification guide, the captain carefully selected where he knew his torpedo would have a chance of hitting a fuel bunker. No solution was needed. The target was a sitting duck.

"Nummer eins...LOS!"

(pt4 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Fortune smiled on the Kriegsmarine that day. The horrified bridge crew onboard King George could do nothing as the telltale stream of bubbles raced inexorably for them. The battleship shuddered with the impact and erupted in flames as the fish tore a great gash in the armour belt and sparks ignited the primary fuel bunker.



Surfacing the boat, Von Leahy ordered the chief to head to intercept Bismarck. U-64 had no torpedoes left and the Kaleun knew that every British Zerstorer would be gunning for him. U-64 needed the protection of Bismarck's 14" guns.



But the battleship had problems of her own to contend with.

"British cruisers bearing red 040 Herr Kaleun!!!"

Time to dive once again!



(pt5 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

As U-64 raced for the safety of the depths once more, Bismarck erupted out of the fog straight into the path of the cruisers Suffolk and Dorsetshire, who had heard the death throes of the battleships on their radios and were determined to avenge the loss. They could not understand how the crippled Bismarck had succeeded once again in humbling the Royal Navy, and were not sure that the garbled messages had said "torpedo" or something else. The german battleship was known to carry tinfish as part of her secondary battery but it seemed unlikely she would have used them first. Perhaps U-boats were in the vicinity, which was bad news.

Bad, but not as bad as Bismarck's main armament opening fire on them at point blank range...









Within minutes, although her superstructure was badly damaged by the cruiser's 12" guns, Bismarck had reduced the British ships to flaming wrecks. As Dorsetshire slipped beneath the waves, Kapitan z See Ernst Lindemann stood in his wrecked bridge, cap and clothes shredded, staring at the dying Admiral.

"Lindemann, your ship is a credit to the Reich! They will award you the Knight's Cross for this, I swear it!" gasped Lutjens as he clung to the last ebb of life.

"Danke, Herr Admiral, rest now. We must hope the Royal Navy has no more ships out there after our blood. We are not home and dry yet." Lindemann did not like the Admiral, he was not and ardent supporter of the party whereas Lutjens was a fanatic, and had endangered Bismarck through his misplaced enthusiasm for facing the enemy directly on unequal terms. But here was a dying man, who had, admittedly, braved the storm of enemy fire directed at the bridge unflinchingly.

As the Admiral was carried below, Lutjens looked out to where Dorsetshire's bow foamed and frothed until dissappearing from view entirely, leaving a thick oily slick as the only marker of her final resting place.

[lonehawknz]

"U-boat off the starboard bow Herr Kapitan!!"

The lookout stood pointing at U-64, which had surfaced, most unexpectdly, off to the right of Bismarck.

A broad grin split Lindemann's face as he recognised an older version of a wet behind the ears Fahnrich whom he had instructed in basic seamanship at Kiel 6 years previously, staring back at him and waving through his binoculars.

"Von Leahy, you cunning dog!"

Bismarck had heard the violent explosions of the Rodney and the King George but had no idea what they signified. But now Lindemann began to guess what had occurred and he thanked god for the little boat's most fortuitous appearance!

"Signal U-64. Well done little brother, you're a credit to the family, now get off home safely to mum!"

Aboard U-64, not a few of the watch crew choked at the moving tribute. Kapitanleutnant Von Leahy turned to Leading Seaman Brunwald, the signaller.

"Signal Bismarck. Our pleasure. It's good to have big brothers when there's a bully around!"

[lonehawknz]

Oh... THE END...

[bigboywooly]

Whoa
Great story and great pics too
Can i ask what mods you are using to be part of that ?
Chance of a lifetime that and well played

Kudos Herr Kaleun

[lonehawknz]

Thanks Wooly!!!

I was using Harbour Traffic v1.46 by Rubini...!

Fantastic mod, and yep, I couldn't believe it when the message came through and I was close enough to help!

Mate, that was far and away my best SH3 moment so far.

Chris

[Sulikate]

Nice story.

[Umfuld]

Very cool.

I thought about tailling a German task force in hopes of seeing a battle. I didn't. Maybe I'll go back and find them now.

[Type941]

Awesome. You should use some skins available for the ships so you see the battle even more realistically!

From my bismarck movie. Although it ends properly. :p

http://files.filefront.com/SH3_Video.../fileinfo.html

[lonehawknz]

OMG! Type 941, I don't think my set of stills comes close to that...



Salute!

Achingly beautiful...

[VonHelsching]

Excellent story!

[HEMISENT]

Great writing